First of all I am having to type this while Nora is laying on my desk in front of me, squirming like crazy and getting quite fussy. Time to hand her back to Mommy soon, my milk has yet to come in :) With everything going on, newborn baby, work overload, the 365 Project, Noraslife.com and producing Vol 3, I have not had much time to blog. However I need to as I want to get some of the things I might forget written down.
The mornings have been designated my time with Nora so mommy can get some uninterrupted sleep, if only for a couple hours. I don’t mind it much at all, I just scoop up Nora and carry her into my office. I set her into her swing and turn it on low. It has several settings for sounds, I prefer the rainforest complete with frogs, birds and howling monkeys in the background , very relaxing :) I find myself leaving it on sometimes even after she is out of the room.
One thing early on we have taken notice of is how fiesty Nora can be. She does not particularly care to have her diaper changed and tries to resist by throwing her arms and legs around and grunting, Rarely crying, more like vigorously protesting. Even harder is getting clothes on her. It is amazing how strong she is for being so small. I dread when Sharon hands me something long sleeve with lots of snaps on it, I knopw there is going to be a struggle. I call out often “She’s resisting, she’s resisting,” but honestly I get a chuckle out of it all.
While on the subject of dislikes I have to call attention to the car seat. There is a love hate relationship going on. She likes to go places. She is just not fond of being strapped into it, especially when you have to straighten her legs, she doesn’t like to be forced to do anything against her will. She has no love for being cold either. Cold hands are a pet peeve early on. I remember the first time she got unwrapped from her swaddle blanket in the delivery room, she wailed! She did not like that cold air.
What amazes me are the traits she exhibited from the second she got out, some even while she was still in the womb, are still very present now. Such as have the hand up by her face when she sleeps. We saw it on ultrasound and she still always holds it up there now when she sleeps. The jerking from inside the womb is still there as well when she sleeps. Every now and then she just throws her whole body into a spasm, then goes back to deep sleep.
When it comes to sleep, Nora is right on track with newborns being nocturnal. Although, this has improved a bit. Now we just need to get her to sleep in her own bed. She loves to sleep next to us, or right on top of us. Which I am sure all newborns do, we are just lazy and let her sleep wherever she will sleep. We have started small periods of time where we put her into the co-sleeper or crib, we try to let her cry, but once it reaches fury level we cave and go grab her. I am sure that is going to come back and bite us in the ass. But many books say the first 3 months cannot spoil a child. Let’s hope they are right.
So I spoke a lot about what Nora does not like, I am going to end it on what she does like. She likes noise. It seems the louder and crazier it is, the better she sleeps. She can be sleeping and have Jack and Jinjer going crazy barking right next to her and not bat an eye. She loves going places, just not the car seat. She loves to be cuddled. She loves when we sing to her.
The thing that soothes her the most is being in daddy’s arms as he walks around the house talking to her, that is sometimes the only thing that works. I have found myself walking around at 3 in the morning to get her back to sleep, only to look at her with her eyes wide open, fixated on me. It cracks me up, but it does melt my heart. I forget that I am exhausted and it is the middle of the night. I figure I should write down little events which I will someday forget, but do not want to.
One night Nora was being extra fussy. I did not realize it as I was in deep drooling sleep. Sharon woke me and said “here, do something with her” and handed her to me. I was still half asleep and kinda groggy, but the whines took care of that, I was alert quickly. Sharon told me she had not slept much at all and needed a break. I got up, and started walking with Nora. She was in my arms doing that wide awake thing. Her eyes were so open and just staring at me. She never took them off me and just blinked ever so slowly. It was the cutest thing I ever saw. But I had to ask her, “what are you doing little girl, what is your problem?” Usually after a few minutes of walking and rocking she closes her eyes, and goes to sleep for me. Not this night. It took almost an hour of soothing before she closed her eyes.
I decided to let Sharon keep sleeping so I went into the spare bedroom and sat on the bed. Because I tried to not disturb Nora at all. I slowly slid down, inch by inch until I was sort of laying down. But I was in just shorts and this was the coldest night we have had in a long time. I was freezing. Nora had full pajamas on but still needed a blanket. So in order to not wake her I did not get up, but instead became resourceful and pulled the flannel pillowcases off and used those for her, but I was still cold.
I tried to pull up the ends of the comforter to wrap over me. It sorted of worked, but not great. Eventually after an hour or so, Sharon came in to check on us and covered us both up properly. Nora continued to sleep in my arms, and I told Sharon to back to sleep. After another hour Nora woke up hungry. She doesn’t cry at first, she lets you know by either trying to eat her own hand, or try to latch onto my arm. Like I stated earlier, my milk has yet to come in so I had to pass her to her mommy.
“So how is life as a daddy?” many ask. Life is good. I love being a daddy to my little girl. I wish I had my little boy as well, I would loved to have had one in each arm in that bed that night. Time is going by so fast, I need to write down more. Even events which do not seem like anything much at the time, may be treasured moments someday. Hell I try to treasure every moment. That is something I learned from my little boy, that life is so precious.
I think the picture says it all.